Marvel's Avengers have been protecting Earth from evil since 1963, recruiting huge swathes of the universe's superhumans over more than six decades. However, there are some heavyweight heroes who still haven't been asked to join the team.
Recent years have seen powerhouse heroes like Storm, Clea Strange and Beta Ray Bill join the team. But there are several older, better-known, more powerful heroes who have yet to make the cut.
We're looking for heroes who haven't joined the main Avengers roster in the mainstream Earth-616. We'll also be trying to avoid any heroes who have signed up with long-lived spin-off rosters like the Secret Avengers, Young Avengers and Dark Avengers, despite their sometimes shaky connections to the main team.
Silver Surfer aka Norrin Radd
The former herald of Galactus is one of Marvel's most powerful beings, with the strength and energy control to mix it up with Thor and the Hulk, as well as cosmic awareness, teleportation across cosmic distances, intangibility, shapeshifting, and control over gravity, heat and matter.
It's not like Silver Surfer hasn't spent significant time on Earth. He's a longtime member of the Defenders alongside Doctor Strange, Hulk and Namor. He even fell in love with Earth woman Dawn Greenwood. Through various misunderstandings and cosmic quagmires, SIlver Surfer has fought the Avengers multiple times, but he's never joined.
That's made all the more unusual because he HAS been asked. Captain America tried to recruit Silver Surfer to the team in 1982's Avengers #216 (Jim Shooter, Alan Weiss, Dan Green), but he turned them down, citing a vague sense that "paths of destiny do beckon that must be traveled alone!"
Given the Silver Surfer's immense guilt over his part in Galactus' feeding, it makes sense that while he's willing to partner with fellow outsiders in the Defenders, he doesn't consider himself worthy to be counted as a true 'hero.'
Jean Grey aka Phoenix
Founding X-Men hero Jean Grey has never joined the Avengers, though she has fought alongside them in major event stories like King in Black and Judgment Day. By herself, Jean Grey is an incredibly powerful telepath and telekinetic, and while bonded to the cosmic Phoenix Force, she possesses godlike control over reality itself.
While you could excuse Jean's absence by saying she's too core to the X-Men franchise, both fellow founding member the Beast and breakout hero Wolverine have spent significant time as Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
In-world, the Avengers have been shown to be very wary of the Phoenix Force (see both Avengers vs X-Men and the 'Enter the Phoenix' arc), so it isn't hard to imagine that they've avoided associating themselves with the devastating cosmic god.
In the real world, Jean has spent decades of real time dead and her immense power makes her difficult to write, so it's no surprise she hasn't been translated from X-Men to Avengers... yet.
Adam Warlock
Thanos' arch-nemesis is Marvel's avatar of life, with perfect physiology and godlike control over energy, as well as telepathy, precognition, magic, quantum energy manipulation and more.
Adam Warlock famously stood with the Avengers during the events of Infinity Gauntlet, but he's ultimately way about their pay grade. Adam Warlock has witnessed the fall of realities, busying himself with - at minimum - the fate of the universe.
It's not surprising he's never joined the Avengers since they wouldn't add much to his firepower, have a different set of priorities, and are a little less morally flexible than Adam himself, who often sees the big picture to a fault. On top of that, Warlock is something of a pet project for writer Jim Starlin, and rarely appears without the Thanos creator involved.
Honorable Mentions
- Captain Ultra - Griffin Gogol has an incredible number of superpowers, from enhanced strength to intangibility to a sonic voice. However, he's generally been treated as a joke character who lacks the grit to serve on the Avengers. He got so angry about being passed over by the team, he even attacked them in 2011 to get their attention.
- Man-Thing - Ted Sallis' horror-themed protector of reality has never officially served on the Avengers, though Blade did bring the offcut 'Boy-Thing' with him as a sidekick when he briefly joined the team in 2019.
- Combo Man - A hero made up of physical layers of different heroes (Hulk's forehead, Cyclops' eyes, Human Torch's shins, etc), Rick Wilder was created as comedic marketing for Combos Stuffed Snacks in 1996, but he's technically canon and has the combined powers of Marvel's heaviest hitters.
- Virtue - Ethan Edwards' Superman-esque Skrull is incredibly powerful and possesses rare healing powers, but grew to hate the Avengers following the events of Secret Invasion.
- Excalibur - Faiza Hussain wields King Arthur's legendary sword, which can kill any living thing (including gods) and makes its owner invulnerable so long as they wear its scabbard. She joined the Mighty Avengers in one of the many alternate realities of 2015's Secret Wars, but never in Earth-616.
- Iceman - While X-Men including Storm, Wolverine and Rogue have been asked to join the Avengers, Omega-level mutant Bobby Drake hasn't received the call.
- Gladiator - The ultimate enforcer of the alien Shi'ar Empire, Gladiator is one of Marvel's strongest heroes of all time. However, he's traditionally treated as a side character rather than a protagonist, so it's no surprise he hasn't been inducted.
- Ghost Rider - The original Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze has never been invited onto Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but the near-identically powered Robbie Reyes has (albeit only recently.)
- Franklin Richards - The Fantastic Four's reality-warping son has never served on the Avengers despite being Marvel's most powerful hero, however they'd have to be pretty desperate to invite a pre-teen onto the roster.
Ikaris of the Eternals
The Eternals aren't the most famous Marvel characters, but they are 100% dedicated to protecting humanity, so you'd think more of them would have joined the Avengers. As it stands, only Sersi and Gilgamesh (and their technical-Eternal cousin Starfox) have joined the team, with only Sersi really making her mark.
The Superman-esque Ikaris is notably absent from that list, despite being the most superheroic of his extended family. Immortal, incredibly strong, able to channel cosmic energy and capable of telepathy, Ikaris has never even been asked to join the Avengers. Indeed, the MCU's Eternals used the idea as a joke, with his family laughing when he suggested he could lead the team following Iron Man's death.
The Eternals' lack of popularity explains why so few have joined the Avengers, while in-canon Iron Man has made it clear that he sees them as a problem in waiting. Eternals are biologically forced to obey certain rules, some of them decidedly unheroic, and the Avengers have only been comfortable recruiting their rogues and exiles.
Fastforward, aka Buried Alien
In 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC's Barry Allen - aka the Flash - seemingly sacrificed his life, running so fast that he literally disintegrated. In 1990, an amnesiac speedster appeared on Earth-616. He didn't remember where he'd come from - just that he'd worn a red and yellow costume, his real name sounded like 'Buried Alien' and the nickname of 'fastest man alive' felt right.
Eventually taking the name Fastforward, this hero hasn't really factored into Marvel lore since the '80s, which is weird because he remains the publisher's fastest ever hero. That title was earned in a cosmic race against the other major competitors, with Fastforward outrunning Quicksilver, Photon, the Eternals' Makkari and more.
While it's not surprising that 'Fastforward the joke 80s character ripping off DC's Flash' never joined the Avengers, it's far stranger that 'Marvel's fastest hero of all time' has never been on the team.
Those are our picks for the five most powerful heroes who have yet to join the Avengers - let us know what you think of our picks below, and who else belongs on this list.
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